About Me

Trent has played guitar for 20 years, piano for 18 years, and actively taught both of those for over a decade. He started as a metal guitarist and played with various bands in the California Bay Area as a teenager. Later, he majored in music in college and completed a Bachelor of Arts in Music in 2015 from Brigham Young University where he studied classical guitar and jazz with Barbara Wayne and Ben Mathews. He has performed in masterclasses for Grammy winning jazz artist Joe Lovano, jazz guitar virtuoso Corey Christiansen, and the Vida Guitar Quartet. During this time, Trent played guitar, bass, and mandolin in a bluegrass band which toured internationally as the accompaniment for a competitive dance team, American Rhythm Folk Ensemble. He has been a member of metal bands Eternal North and Teravolt, and currently performs with the San Diego State University Guitar Ensemble and Gaijin Card, a local metal/J-rock band. Additionally, Trent has played bass guitar for various musical theater groups such as the San Jose Stage Company and the Peninsula Youth Theater, as well as served as a church pianist for two years.

Trent is an enthusiastic and professional teacher who enjoys helping students set and achieve goals. He encourages students to focus on learning the genre of music they are passionate about, while teaching fundamentals like music literacy and technique. He believes that the optimal learning process involves a collaboration between teacher and student, rather than a master-apprentice model. As such, he provides individualized learning plans according to the student's goals. Due to his experience playing in a wide variety of musical groups, Trent is comfortable teaching many styles of music including metal, classical, jazz, bluegrass, Latin, rock, folk, and blues. Students of his have gone on to play in jazz ensembles and rock groups alike. Over nearly a decade of teaching, Trent has helped students from ages 4 to 64 years old and of all skill levels accomplish their music goals. He is excited to start working with you too!